Method and apparatus for heating roll used for treatment of textile material

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for heating a roll for the heat treatment of textile material. A drive shaft for the roll is hollow and a fixed pipe for the supply of heated lubricating oil is inserted through said hollow shaft and opens into the interior of the roll. The clearance between the inner wall of said hollow shaft and the outer wall of said fixed pipe and/or a guide hole leading from the interior of the roll or of said hollow shaft to the interior of a housing serves as a circulation path through which lubricating oil flowed along the inner surface of the roll is passed as it returns to a gear box.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Tatsuo Nakahm 2,915,293 12/1959 Justus et a1. 34/124X Mlnoo; 3,120,867 2/1964 Nash 165/90 Yoshlakl Ando, Tsuruga, both of, Japan 3,309,786 3/1967 Conti l65/90X 1 H gr p 35 53 FOREIGN PATENTS E P p 34 2 Patented June 844,630 8/1960 Great Britain /1 4 [73] Assignee Toyo Bosekl Kabushlkl Keisha Primary Examiner-Charles J. Myhre AttorneyWenderoth, Lind & Ponack [54} METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING ROLL USED FOR TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIAL Fl 1 3 Drawing ABSTRACT: An apparatus for heating a roll for the heat [52] US. Cl 263/6C, treatment f n m- A drive h ft f the m" is 34/124- l65/90 low and a fixed pipe for the supply of heated lubricating oil is [51] Int. Cl F28d 11/02 i d through said hollow h ft and opens into the interior 0 C; of the [OIL The clearance between the inne wall of hol- 155/90; 34/124 low shaft and the outer wall of said fixed pipe and/or a guide hole leading from the interior of the roll or of said hollow shaft [56] cited to the interior of a housing serves as a circulation path through UNITED STATES PATENTS which lubricating oil flowed along the inner surface of the roll 2,418,653 4/1947 McCormack 34/124X is passed as it returns to a gear box.

9 l V l /2 ll I a ,I I I a /4 Z7 e l r m /'//j/ A c t t I I q I 36 I r w METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING ROLL USED FOR TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIAL The present invention relates to an apparatus for heating a textile material heat-treating roll and particularly such a roll as is used in draw-twisting synthetic filamentary material.

Heating rolls have heretofore been widely used for heat stretching, heat setting and other heat treatment of textile materials. Particularly in a draw-twisting machine for continuous filaments of synthetic material such as polyamide, polyester and polypropylene, heating rolls are often used for heat treatments such as preheating before stretch and heat setting after stretch. The surface temperature of such heattreating rolls has a considerable effect on the quality of the yarns after the heat treatment and in order to obtain a uniform textile product it is required that the surface temperature of the heat-treating rolls is capable of being controlled to within the range of the predetermined or desired temperature ilC.

The typical conventional system for heating of heat-treating rolls is the electric-heating system and next comes the steam system. Further, the system in which a heating body is built in a roll may be divided into two types; one type in which a fixed heating body is inserted in a roll (hereinafter referred to as fixed type") and the other in which the inner surface of a roll is directly heated or a heating body is made integral with a roll (hereinafter referred to as rotary type).

However, in the electric-heating fixed type apparatus, there is a clearance between the heating body and the inner surface of the roll body. Therefore it is poor in heat conduction and response to a change in thermal load is slow. Therefore, in cases where there is a sudden variation in thermal load as when the machine starts to run or filamentary material is caused to start to travel on the roll, there will occur a time lag of several minutes before the roll surface temperature reaches a predetermined value and in an extreme case it becomes even necessary to change the set temperature in the control system at some intervals of time to cope with the difficulty. The disadvantage of the fixed type would remain unchanged even if the heat source for the heating body is changed from electric heat to steam or other medium.

On the other hand, a roll of the electric-heating rotary type in which an electric-heating body is made integral with a roll, as compared with the fixed type, has an increased speed of response to a variation in thermal load, but requires a slip ring in temperature detection for the control of temperature and supply of electric power, which not only adds complexity to the mechanism but also tends to cause errors in temperature measurement. Further, the electric-heating system, whether the fixed or the rotary type, requires temperature control on each heating roll unit so that the installation of such system will involve heavy expenses in cases where there are many heating rolls as in a draw-twisting machine.

Further, the system in which the inner surface of a roll is directly heated with steam has an increased speed of response to a thermal load variation as in the case of the electric-heating rotary type. However, it is difficult to effectively seal those portions where steam is fed to or discharged out of the roll. Particularly in cases where heating at high temperature is intended, high-pressure steam has to be used, so that limitations are imposed on the diameters of steam tubes, thus tending to cause malfunction to the drainage and leakage through the sealed parts. As a result, a variation in roll surface temperature still takes place or disturbance is caused to the function of lubricating oil owing to the leakage of steam into the drive system. Further, even if a heat transfer medium such as Dowtherm is used instead of steam, the difficulties in the seals would remain unchanged, since such medium has high permeability.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to eliminate the above mentioned various disadvantages and provide a heattreating roll which is quick in responding to a thermal load variation, simple in structure and advantageous in the aspect of machine maintenance.

Other objects of this invention will be apparent from the following description.

Briefly, this invention provides a system for heating a textile material-heating roll characterized by the fact that a lubricating oil for roll drive gear and/or drive shaft bearings is preheated to a predetermined temperature and is then circulated along the inner surface of the roll.

The roll heating device of the present invention is characterized in that a drive shaft for a roll is made hollow; a fixed pipe for the supply of heated lubricating oil is inserted in said hollow shaft and open to the interior of the roll; and a clearance defined between the inner wall of said hollow shaft and the outer wall of said fixed pipe and/or a guide hole leading from the interior of the roll or of said hollow shaft to the interior of a housing serves as a circulation path through which the lubricating oil flowed along the inner surface of the roll is passed as it returns to a gear box.

Thus, in the present invention, the lubricating oil for the roll drive mechanism is utilized also as a heat source for heating the roll and there is no need of providing any complicated sealed parts as needed by the conventional systems, so that there is no trouble ascribable to leakage. Therefore, this is highly advantageous also in the aspect of the maintenance of the machine. Further, since the heated lubricating oil is supplied directly to the inner surface of the roll to reduce the resistance to the transfer of heat to the outer surface of the roll, the speed of response to a variation in thermal load is high and the variation in the roll surface temperature is small. Further, the temperature control is simple, easy and reliable since it is only necessary to control the temperature of the heated lubricating oil flowing into the roll.

The lubricating oil used in the present invention may be commercially available industrial gear oil, but preferably it is selected in consideration of heat-resistant property, oxidationresistant property and the relation between viscosity and temperature. Particularly in cases where heating at high temperature is required, it is preferable to use synthetic lubricating oil which is superior in heat-resistant and oxidation-resistant properties rather than mineral lubricating oil. Industrial extremepressure gear oil is most preferable.

The invention will be further explained by referring to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view, in longitudinal section, of a conventional typical textile material heat-treating roll;

FIG. 2 is a side view, in longitudinal section, of a textile material heat-treating roll embodying the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a system diagram showing the circulation of lubricating oil as used when the present invention is applied to a number of heat treating rolls included in a draw-twisting machine.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a roll with a typical fixed type electricheating device.

A roll body 1' is connected directly to a shaft 5 driven by gears 8' and the shaft 5' is supported in a housing 7' by a bearing 6. Inserted in the roll body I is a fixed heating body 2' having cast therein an electric heater 3 and a temperature detecting terminal 4. Since this type, though simple in structure, has a clearance 10' between the heating body 2 and the inner surface of the roll body 1, it is poor in heat conduction and slow in responding to a change in thermal load. Therefore, it has various drawbacks as pointed out hereinbefore.

The apparatus of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 2 which is a side view, in longitudinal section, of a heat-treating roll embodying the present invention. A roll body 1 is connected directly to a hollow shaft 5 driven by a worm gear 8 and the hollow shaft 5 is supported in a housing 7 through bearings 6. The housing 7 is made integral with a gear box 9 to form a single chamber. A fixed pipe 2 for supplying heated lubricating oil is inserted in the gear box 9 from the outside and extends through the hollow shaft 5 so as to be open to the interior of the roll body 1. The positioning of the fixed pipe and roll body is effected by a bearing 10. It is desirable that a block 12 of oil-resistant synthetic resin or the like be attached to the fixed pipe 2 in the roll body 1 so as to decrease the volume of the inner space of the roll main body and define a path for the heated lubricating oil. An oil seal 16 is provided at the junction between the end portion of the housing 7 and the rotary part, thereby preventing the leakage of the lubricating oil.

The heated lubricating oil is passed from the outside through an inlet 3 and fixed pipe 2 into an open part 4 in the interior of the roll body, and thence it flows into a path 13 at the inner surface of the roll to heat the roll. it is preferable that the inner surface of the roll be suitably made uneven (or wavy in cross section) as illustrated or otherwise designed to give resistance to the flow of the heated lubricating oil and increase the heat transfer area. The lubricating oil after heating the roll is passed through the bearing 10, and part of the oil flows through an annular portion 14 surrounded by the inner wall of the hollow shaft 5 and the outer wall of the fixed pipe 2 and enters the gear box 9 and the remainder is passed through guide holes 11 and bearing 6 into the gear box 9. The lubricating oil is collected on the bottom of the gear box 9 to lubricate the gear 8 and over flows an outlet pipe 15 to return to circulating and reheating means in the outside. Outside of the gear box 1, housing 7 is covered with a heat insulating material to minimize the radiation of heat into the outside.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram showing the circulation of lubricating oil as used when the present invention is applied to a number of heat-treating rolls included in a draw-twisting machine 30. Lubricating oil is fed by a circulation pump 21 from a reservoir tank 23 to a heat exchanger 22 to a predetermined temperature, and it is passed through a filter 25 and a flow control valve 24 into a distribution header 26 and is then supplied to heat-treating roll unit 31 as described in connection with FIG. 2, through the inlet 3, respectively. The lubricating oil flowing from the gear box is passed through outlet pipe 15 and return pipe 28 into the reservoir tank 23 and is then used for circulation. The flow of steam in the heat exchanger is controlled by a steam control valve 29.

The temperature of the heated lubricating oil may be selected within a wide range by proper selection of oil and may be about 200C. The larger the flow per heat-treating roll of a draw-twisting machine, the easier the temperature control, but it is usually sufficient to provide a flow of 34l./min., at which there will be almost no influence caused by a variation in thermal load.

As has so far been described above, the present invention has a high industrial merit in that it provides a heat-treating roll which is simple in structure, quick in responding to a variation in thermal load and capable of maintaining a uniform surface temperature.

What we claim is:

1. An apparatus for heating a roll for the heat treatment of textile material comprising a hollow roll having a hollow drive shaft extending therefrom; a housing surrounding said drive shaft and journaling said drive shaft for rotation therein; a gear box integral with said housing, said gear box and said housing thereby forming a single chamber, said gear box housing therein gears operatively associated with said drive shaft to rotate said drive shaft and said hollow roll; a fixed pipe extending through said gear box, through said hollow drive shaft and into the interior of said hollow roll; means to supply heated lubricating oil through said fixed pipe into the interior of said hollow roll, whereby said hollow roll is heated; and means to circulate said oil from said hollow roll into said chamber to lubricate said gears, said means to circulate including a clearance between the exterior of said fixed pipe and the interior of said drive shaft and at least one guide hole extending through said roll into the interior of said housing. 

1. An apparatus for heating a roll for the heat treatment of textile material comprising a hollow roll having a hollow drive shaft extending therefrom; a housing surrounding said drive shaft and journaling said drive shaft for rotation therein; a gear box integral with said housing, said gear box and said housing thereby forming a single chamber, said gear box housing therein gears operatively associated with said drive shaft to rotate said drive shaft and said hollow roll; a fixed pipe extending through said gear box, through said hollow drive shaft and into the interior of said hollow roll; means to supply heated lubricating oil through said fixed pipe into the interior of said hollow roll, whereby said hollow roll is heated; and means to circulate said oil from said hollow roll into said chamber to lubricate said gears, said means to circulate including a clearance between the exterior of said fixed pipe and the interior of said drive shaft and at least one guide hole extending through said roll into the interior of said housing. 